35th Ward campaign focuses on incumbent's past

April 10, 2007 (WLS) -- Two political veterans face off in the race for alderman from Chicago's 35th Ward. Most elections are about the future, but the campaign in this Northwest Side ward focuses on the past of the incumbent Rey Colon.

Vilma Colom is trying to reclaim the aldermanic seat that she held for eight years until Rey Colon defeated her in 2003. This is actually the fifth time that Colon and Colom have met at the polls in this predominantly Latino ward, but for the first time, Rey Colon is confronted with the personal mistakes of his past.

"Here is information regarding his drunk driving record. This is not made-up information," said Vilma Colom, 35th Ward candidate.

Vilma Colom's campaign to get her old job back includes a barrage of mailers detailing the personal indiscretions of her opponent, Alderman Rey Colon, including arrests for DUI and driving on a suspended license, failure to pay child support, and then lying about it until she produced the evidence.

"Come on, Rey. Fess up to what you've done, and people will forgive you and forget, but don't lie and continue to lie to the community," said Colom.

"I'm saying that we all have youthful mistakes. We all have problems that have come through and that's part of humanity," said Colon. The alderman admits most of the allegations are true, but claims Colom violated election law by initially sending out the mailers anonymously, and Rey Colon points out that all of his mistakes go back more than a decade.

"I've made a career of helping people solve their problems as a result of me having mine," said Ald. Rey Colon, 35th Ward.

The incumbent is also talking about the former alderman's past, claiming that he defeated Vilma Colom four years ago, because she was perceived as an out-of-touch puppet for her political mentor, Alderman Dick Mell, the estranged father-in-law of Governor Blagojevich.

"I'm running against the same campaign, and this is the 'Mellma' production here," said Colon.

"The only people I need to be loyal to is the people in the 35th Ward, not to the mayor, not to Alderman Mell," Colom said.

Beyond the personal and the political, the race in this predominantly Latino ward that includes the Logan Square neighborhood focuses on crime, which is down slightly, and development, which is extremely complicated in older gentrifying neighborhoods with a multitude of competing interests.

"I'm happy with both the preservation and redevelopment that we have done in the ward in the past four years and I'm looking forward to the next four," Colon said.

"Right now the present alderman has divided this community by all the lies," said Colom.

The most interesting aspect of the race, beyond the personal and politics attacks, is that Rey Colon defeated Vilma Colom four years ago by running as a progressive reformer running against an alleged machine hack. Now, Vilma Colom is running as an outsider, claiming that Colon the reformer is now in the pocket of the big developers he railed against the last time around.

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